Friday, June 09, 2006

It's safe if you don't inhale

It's safe if you don't inhale.

Hong Kong is a city that people tend to either love or hate.

Two articles in today's SCMP that grabbed my attention relate to air pollution and the crime rate.

Hong Kong's air has been assessed as exceeding World Health Organisation standards by more than 200% and is much worse than Los Angeles, New York, London or Paris. Of course nobody (except the government and the power companies) needed a study to tell them that the air pollution in Hong Kong is awful and is having an adverse impact on health. The question is whether anything will ever get done about it? A spokesperson said that the government would "consider" WHO's findings.

The other side of the ledger contains some more positive data on Hong Kong's crime rate. The overall crime rate was 1,188 per 100,000 people. This is less than a tenth of the crime rate in London (13,784) or Paris (12,448) and about 42% of the crime rate in New York (2,800).

By most standards Hong Kong is a safe city….just as long as you don't inhale.